The present invention relates to beverage brewers in general, and, more specifically, to beverage brewers having two modes of operation, an automatic mode in which water automatically flows into a reservoir for heating the water and is dispensed over beverage concentrate during a brewing cycle and a manual mode in which water is manually added to the brewer and dispensed over a beverage concentrate during the brewing cycle.
Beverage brewers are common in commercial enterprise, especially common in coffee brewing in office, hotel and restaurant services. Traditionally brewers have a reservoir containing water to be used in the beverage brewing process. Water can be pumped into the reservoir from an external water supply or poured into a receiving basin connected to the reservoir. When the operator wishes to brew a beverage such as coffee, the operator activates the controls so that hot water from the reservoir exits through ground coffee. Or if the operator wishes simply to have hot water for hot chocolate, tea, soups, etc., many coffee making machines are equipped with a second outlet with a spigot for dispensing water on an as needed basis.
The prior art includes beverage brewers with reservoir level sensing controls, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,836 issued to Patel and brewers with automated reservoir filling capabilities, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,267 issued to Rolfes.
However, there remains a need for a beverage brewer having a water level sensor indicating when water is needed in the reservoir for beverage brewing operations and which activates either the external water supply or manual pour-over operations to add water to the reservoir.
Therefore, it is a paramount object of the present invention to provide a beverage brewer having a water level sensor indicating when water is needed in the reservoir for beverage brewing operations and which activates either the external water supply or manual pour-over operations to add water to the reservoir.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a beverage brewer that is capable of having the reservoir filled from an external water source or manually at the discretion of the operator.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a beverage brewer with energy saving features that deactivate decanter warmers.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon a reading of the following description.
The present invention pertains to a beverage brewer having two modes of operation, an automatic mode in which water automatically flows into a reservoir for heating the water and is dispensed over beverage concentrate during a brewing cycle and a manual mode in which water is manually added to the brewer and dispensed over a beverage concentrate during the brewing cycle. The brewer apparatus includes a water level sensor extending into the reservoir for sensing the presence of the water level of the reservoir; a water replacement system with at least one water inlet valve in communication with the reservoir; a brewing system with a water outlet, a brewer valve, and a hot water distribution system for distributing hot water over the beverage concentrate held in a brew basket; a controller for controlling multiple functions of said brewer, and a user operated control panel for providing a brew signal to said controller and for displaying the status of certain operations of said brewer.